Special Education

TaskStream Submissions of Course Signature Assignments Now Required!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR STUDENTS

TASKSTREAM STUDENT (AUTHOR) ACCOUNT CREATION FOR NEW STUDENTS:
Effective as of the spring 2012 semester, all *NEW* Special Education students will have TaskStream accounts created for them by Emily Gibson, CEHD Student Assessment Coordinator, following notification of course enrollment by each program liaison or enrollments specialist.

Once new accounts are created, TaskStream will send an auto-generated email notification directly to students to their Mason email address* (the only exceptions to this are for non-Mason students participating in state consortium programs from other universities. These students will be provided with their own instructions and information directly from their consortium program liaison or website).

*Per the Student Rights and Responsibilities section of the University Catalog
(http://catalog.gmu.edu/content.php?catoid=19&navoid=4108#offi_comm_stud), the use and maintenance of each student’s Mason email account is required as it is the official form of university communication to students.

Anyone requiring any assistance with the activation and/or use of their Mason email account must contact the ITU Support Center directly at 703-993-8870.

This email notification from TaskStream will include each student’s username and a link they'll have to click on to create their password and access the site for the first time. Emily Gibson is also notified when new accounts are created and she will then enroll students into the proper location(s) within the TaskStream system at that time. (Until this is done by Emily, students will not see any program or course links on their home page when they login).

RETURNING STUDENTS:
Any *RETURNING* student with an existing TaskStream account will continue to use the same username/password information they used in previous semesters.

WHERE DO RETURNING STUDENTS SUBMIT WORK?:
Unless completing Final Portfolio (EDSE 792) in summer 2012, fall 2012 or spring 2013, returning students should NOT continue to submit any work to the formerly titled Special Education Portfolio (now titled Spec Ed Portfolio — FINAL PORTFOLIO STUDENTS ONLY!) — Even if this link appears on their home page! The portfolio element of the Special Education curriculum is in the process of being phased out and students who are not finishing their portfolio should be submitting their work to the new, individual course links instead. Questions regarding where specific assignments should be submitted should be directed to Dr. Margaret Weiss at mweiss9@gmu.edu.

LOST/FORGOTTEN USERNAME OR PASSWORD INFORMATION:
If students have lost or forgotten their username or password information, if they did not receive/cannot find the auto-generated email notification from TaskStream, OR if they've received the notification but the embedded link has expired (happens if they wait too long to respond) they will need to call TaskStream Mentoring Services (help desk) at 1-800-311-5656, provide their G number and Mason email address and ask that this information is re-sent to them.

If students learn that a TaskStream account was not created for them, they will need to send an email to Emily Gibson at tshelp@gmu.edu to request one. Students must provide their G number, Mason email address, program of study and the course(s) they are enrolled in for that semester.

AFTER LOGIN/ SUBMISSION OF NCATE ASSIGNMENTS:

Once students login and access the appropriate course link(s) as needed, they will need to follow the Quick Start Guide for Student Authors in their entirety to successfully upload and submit their work to their instructor(s) for evaluation.

Starting in fall 2011, the Special Education Program began phasing out the formerly titled Special Education Portfolio (now titled Spec Ed Portfolio — FINAL PORTFOLIO STUDENTS ONLY!) in favor of individual DRFs (courses) for each course that they enroll in (as is currently done with Blackboard).

For example, students in Dr. Duke’s EDSE 501.5S1 course section in PatriotWeb for spring 2012 will be enrolled in the EDSE 501.5S1 Duke Spring 2012 DRF in TaskStream. If students enroll/are enrolled into courses late (often occurs with cohort students), they or their instructor will need to notify Emily Gibson at tshelp@gmu.edu so that she can ensure they are enrolled into their DRF in TaskStream.

TROUBLESHOOTING:
If students have any problems or questions regarding the TaskStream process, they will need to send an email containing their G Number and Mason email address to Emily Gibson at tshelp@gmu.edu . Please be as detailed as possible when explaining what the issues are - generic emails that state things like "I can't get it to work" or "I'm having trouble, please help" only add to the delay in resolving matters.

It is also imperative that non-Mason consortium students identify themselves as such as Emily will have to use a different process to locate these students or verify account information in the system.

ASSESSMENTS:
Below is a table with the NCATE Assignment and corresponding course. Most, but not all, courses include an NCATE Assignment(s).

Please note: Students planning to complete final portfolio (EDSE 792) in summer 2012, fall 2012 or spring 2013 may use their “old” signature assignments as portfolio artifacts. These students will submit their artifacts to the formerly titled Special Education Portfolio (now titled Spec Ed Portfolio — Final Portfolio Students Only!). Students will be asked at the time they take final portfolio to upload these assignments to TaskStream and list their portfolio instructor as the evaluator.

Adapted Access Program Assessments

Visual Impairments Program Assessments

RUBRICS:

In the old system, each assessment was aligned to one specific CEC standard. In the new system, each assessment is aligned to multiple CEC standards. Assignments and rubrics have been revised to be more comprehensive and better aligned to the CEC standards.

GLOSSARY OF COMMON TASKSTREAM TERMS:

DRF: Direct Response Folio in TaskStream (most generally named for individual course sections). This where students upload and submit their assignments for evaluation in TaskStream.

Author: Student submitting assignments via TaskStream for evaluation.

Evaluator: Instructor evaluating submitted assignments via TaskStream.

NCATE Assessment/Assignment (a.k.a Required Artifacts): A specific required assignment, presentation or project, determined by the Mason Special Education Faculty, which best demonstrates one or more of the ten Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) standard(s) connected to each course.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR FACULTY & UNIVERSITY SUPERVISORS:

It is strongly recommended that faculty new to TaskStream, as well as those that are returning after an absence of one semester or more, as many rolling changes have occurred in recent semesters, read over the TaskStream 101 document in its entirety. This document provides a brief yet comprehensive description of what is required of faculty with regard to the process.

For more detailed information about CEHD program accreditation and FAQs regarding the use of TaskStream, faculty and students are encouraged to review and distribute the information on the CEHD Accreditation and Program Improvement website: http://cehd.gmu.edu/api/taskstream/

TASKSTREAM INSTRUCTOR (EVALUATOR) ACCOUNT CREATION:
Unlike students, faculty and University Supervisors will create their own TaskStream accounts using the TaskStream Login Instructions for GMU Faculty instructions.

LOST/FORGOTTEN USERNAME OR PASSWORD INFORMATION:
If you are a returning instructor and have lost or forgotten your username or password information you will need to call TaskStream Mentoring Services (help desk) at 1-800-311-5656 and ask that this information is re-sent to you.

EVALUATION OF SUBMITTED WORK:
The Special Education Program requires students to upload and submit work to their instructors and/or University Supervisors via TaskStream for evaluation. Evaluators will need to utilize the Evaluating Submitted Work instructions.

WHERE DO STUDENTS SUBMIT WORK?:
Unless completing Final Portfolio (EDSE 792) in Summer 2012, Fall 2012 or Spring 2013, returning students should NOT continue to submit any work to the formerly titled Special Education Portfolio (now titled Spec Ed Portfolio — FINAL PORTFOLIO STUDENTS ONLY!) — Even if this link appears on their or instructor’s home page! The portfolio element of the Special Education curriculum is in the process of being phased out and students who are not finishing their portfolio should be submitting their work to the new, individual course links instead. Instructors should now be enrolled into the individual courses as Evaluators as well.

CLASS ROSTER:
Just as you compare your student roster in Blackboard with that on PatriotWeb after the drop/add period you will now need to compare the student roster in each of your TaskStream DRFs with that on PatriotWeb. If students are either missing or need to be dropped, please notify Emily Gibson at tshelp@gmu.edu .

REQUIRED SYLLABUS STATEMENT:
If you are teaching one of the courses with a required NCATE assessment (see chart above) your course syllabus MUST contain the following statement regarding the TaskStream submission requirement:
Note: Every student registered for any EDSE course with an NCATE assessment (will be designated as such in the syllabus) is required to submit this assessment, (INSERT NAME OF ASSESSMENT HERE) to TaskStream (regardless of whether a course is an elective, a onetime course or part of an undergraduate minor). TaskStream information is available at http://gse.gmu.edu/programs/sped/. Failure to submit the assessment to TaskStream will result in the course instructor reporting the course grade as Incomplete (IN).  Unless this grade is changed upon completion of the required TaskStream submission, the IN will convert to an F nine weeks into the following semester.

UNIVERSITY SUPERVISORS:
University Supervisors will also need to create their own faculty account using the same instructions (as indicated and provided above).

Each Intern is responsible for uploading their completed Clinical Evaluation Continuum (Interns may scan the hard copy and upload as a PDF file) to the appropriate EDSE 790 Special Education Internship (Gen) SEMESTER YEAR link in TaskStream for evaluation by their University Supervisor. Their University Supervisor should convey this responsibility to the Intern. The Clinical Evaluation Continuum replaces the Internship Summary Form that was previously required.